10 time-saving tips for letting agents

Originally published on?Newsagent

The summer months are traditionally the busiest in letting agencies' calendars. Agents will have to look for new ways to save time so they can invest more hours into generating revenue and providing the best service to their landlords and tenants.

1. Create video viewings to filter candidates quickly

Video marketing?doesn't have to be the full professional set up, but can be a simple phone video posted on social media. If you share video clips when marketing a property, you'll find that more tenants will take themselves out the running before they view it in person, saving you the job.

2. Pre-qualify your tenants to speed up the process

At the moment, there's no shortage of tenant demand, but that only means that filtering to find the best tenant becomes even more difficult.?Pre-qualifying?your tenants, or even asking a few simple questions when they request a viewing, can help you filter out unsuitable tenants early on, before the full?referencing?process.

3. Use time-saving tech to get your references back promptly

Providers like Goodlord that use?open banking,?bank-grade facial recognition, and other tech solutions in referencing - or in other steps in the lettings process - will be able to get those references back to you more quickly, while helping keep you compliant too.

4. Stop wasting time on paperwork

Similarly, filling out a vast amount of paperwork takes time, and have you considered how long it takes to post contracts - and to find any misplaced records? Moving to an?online platform?can give everyone access to the same information instantaneously, help avoid human error, and make it easier for you to progress your lets.

5. Consolidate suppliers with one, streamlined platform

One of our agents once said that Goodlord?helped alleviate?"dashboard fatigue": the hassle of jumping between platforms to complete a simple task. Choosing a supplier that integrates with various technologies, or has simply built its own solution so you only see?one smooth journey, can make life easier for you - and help your agency save money too, without the need to pay multiple suppliers.

6. Outsource rent collection to take a hands-off approach

The emails, the back and forth, the hunt for the right payments - collecting rent can take up a lot of time. Choosing a provider to help is a simple step but takes a lot of hassle off your plate - and helps keep your landlords happy too with prompt rent payments. Goodlord?Rent Collection?has already seen?97% of rental payments?made within 7 days of the due date with its automated chasing, for example.

7. Surpass your tenants' expectations without lifting a finger

A lot of the previous time-saving tips will benefit your tenants too - such as speedy tech solutions in referencing - but you can easily go a step further. Many lettings suppliers can offer extra services to your tenants, such as?utility switching?or?tenants insurance. You'll meet your tenants' expectations, your supplier will do the hard work of the change of occupancy and proposing services to your tenants, and your agency gets time back to focus on other tasks.

8. Automate your claims process to reduce data entry

Do you offer your landlords?rent protection? If yes, you already help protect their rent and your agency's income, so that's already a plus point. If you then have to go through the process of submitting a claim yourself, it can be time consuming - unless you use rent protection with a claims process that's linked to your existing lettings platform, pulling in relevant information without you having to hunt for it. Just one factor to consider when?choosing a policy?for your landlords.

9. Become agile to pivot quickly

Being?agile?is a mindset that your whole business would need to embrace, and involves constantly evaluating your work and making fast decisions, to pivot and stay ahead of your competition. This can help ensure your team doesn't waste time on projects that will see limited success, as the constant process of?analysing and improving?will help everyone see where best to concentrate their efforts.

10. Strengthen compliance with tech that remembers for you

The tasks that help?keep you compliant?are very important, which means you can't cut corners. It could be the difference between regaining possession of your landlords' property or not, or it could result in?hefty fines. Just as landlords rely on agents to understand and stay compliant with legislation, technology can support agents too. The right solution can help?automate some of that compliance and remove human error, making it a much simpler, safer, and faster process.

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